Working Girl (1988) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error When a secretary's idea is stolen by her boss, she seizes an opportunity to steal it back by pretending she has her boss' job. Director: From $2.99 (SD) on Amazon Video ON DISC a list of 38 titles created 04 Oct 2011 a list of 43 titles created 15 Jan 2013 a list of 44 titles created 22 Nov 2014 a list of 23 titles created 17 Dec 2014 a list of 31 titles created 2 months ago Search for " Working Girl " on Amazon.com Connect with IMDb Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Won 1 Oscar. Another 8 wins & 16 nominations.

See more awards » Videos Henry is a lawyer who survives a shooting only to find he cannot remember anything. If that weren't enough, Henry also has to recover his speech and mobility, in a life he no longer fits ... See full summary » Director: Mike Nichols The story of Dian Fossey, a scientist who came to Africa to study the vanishing mountain gorillas, and later fought to protect them. Director: Michael Apted A young Amish boy is sole witness to a murder; policeman John Book goes into hiding in Amish country to protect him until the trial. Director: Peter Weir An ugly duckling having undergone a remarkable change, still harbors feelings for her crush: a carefree playboy, but not before his business-focused brother has something to say about it. Director: Sydney Pollack Edit Storyline Tess McGill is a frustrated secretary, struggling to forge ahead in the world of big business in New York. She gets her chance when her boss breaks her leg on a skiing holiday. McGill takes advantage of her absence to push ahead with her career. She teams up with investment broker Jack Trainer to work on a big deal. The situation is complicated after the return of her boss.

Written by Sami Al-Taher <staher2000@yahoo.com> See All (87) » Taglines: For anyone who's ever won. For anyone who's ever lost. And for everyone who's still in there trying. Genres: 21 December 1988 (USA) See more » Also Known As: Did You Know? Trivia When Katharine Parker ( Sigourney Weaver ) comes back to New York and gets out of the helicopter, she carries a big stuffed-toy gorilla. Weaver played the role of Dian Fossey in Gorillas in the Mist (1988) just a few months before. See more » Goofs Although it is clear from the conversation Jack has with Tess the morning after their first meeting, Tess, having personally setup the meeting the day before and speaking directly with Jack, failed to recognize his voice and his person at the party that night. See more » Quotes Tess McGill : How did you get the scar? Jack Trainer : Some guy pulled a knife in Detroit. (sonoma county, ca) – See all my reviews How can you go wrong with this delightful comedy?

Besides having a great cast headed by Melanie Griffith, there's Harrison Ford (in one of the rare romantic comedies that suits his talents), Sigourney Weaver and wonderful Joan Cusack. And Olympia Dukakis, Alec Baldwin and Kevin Spacey are in it too (don't blink)! A great musical score and Oscar winning song by Carly Simon, all directed by Mike Nichols, I give this two thumbs up, and a 10! 25 of 33 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes Mike Nichols: Six of the late director's memorable movies - LA Times Mike Nichols: Six of the late director's memorable movies Mike Nichols Mike Nichols and Tom Hanks on the set of "Charlie Wilson's War." Mike Nichols and Tom Hanks on the set of "Charlie Wilson's War." (Francois Duhamel / Universal) Oliver Gettell Contact Reporter 'The Graduate,' 'The Birdcage' and more: Six memorable films from the late Mike Nichols Mike Nichols, the pioneering director and comedian who died Wednesday night at the age of 83, leaves behind an acclaimed, varied and prolific body of work.

After breaking out as half of a satirical comedy duo with Elaine May in the late 1950s, Nichols found his niche as a director and proved equally adept at theater, television and film. Along the way he became one of the handful of EGOTs — those who have won Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony awards — an especially rare feat for a director. Although his filmmaking output was not without the occasional misstep, Nichols crafted his share of groundbreaking movies and was a consummate actors' director -- he directed at least a dozen actors to Oscar nominations. Following are six of his most memorable films. "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" (1966) Nichols made his feature directing debut with an adaptation of Edward Albee's critically acclaimed but controversially profane play about an academic couple's tempestuous relationship. But the casting of the headline-grabbing twosome of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton proved to be an inspired choice, and the film racked up 13 Academy Award nominations, winning five, including best actress for Taylor, with the heavily dramatic spin on Albee's piece.

"The Graduate" (1967) Nichols cemented his status as a top director and launched the career of Dustin Hoffman with "The Graduate," based on the Charles Webb novel about an aimless college graduate (Hoffman) who has an affair with the neglected wife (Anne Bancroft) of his father's law partner and then falls for her daughter (Katharine Ross). Heralding the beginning of the New Hollywood era, the film was a critical and commercial success that earned seven Academy Award nominations and won Nichols an Oscar for best director, not to mention becoming one of the best-known movies of its era. Read more stories "Silkwood" (1983) After a series of misfires including "Catch-22," "Day of the Dolphin" and "The Fortune," Nichols rebounded with this fact-based drama about a whistle-blower at a nuclear power plant. The film teamed Nichols with Meryl Streep for the first time, but not the last.

They would go on to work together on "Heartburn," "Postcards From the Edge" and HBO's "Angels in America," and had been developing "Master Class," an HBO piece about the opera singer Maria Callas, at the time of Nichols' death. Photos "Working Girl" (1988) One of Nichols' warmer, wackier films, this workplace romantic comedy featured Melanie Griffith in a career role as a moxie-filled Wall Street secretary who poses as her domineering boss (Sigourney Weaver). Nichols coaxed first-rate comedic turns from Griffith, Weaver and Joan Cusack, all of whom received Oscar nominations (Griffith for lead actress, Weaver and Cusack for supporting actress). The film was also a box-office hit, grossing more than $100 million worldwide. "The Birdcage" (1996) An update of the French farce "La Cage aux Folles," "The Birdcage" would become Nichols' highest-grossing film, taking in $124 million domestically and another $61 million overseas.

Nichols expertly corralled a star-studded cast — Robin Williams, Gene Hackman, Nathan Lane, Dianne Wiest — in the boisterous tale of a gay couple pretending to be straight so their son can introduce them to his fiancee's conservative parents. "Charlie Wilson's War" (2007) Nichols' final film starred Tom Hanks as the titular congressman, a high-living wheeler-dealer who teamed up with a wealthy socialite (Julia Roberts) and a gruff CIA operative (Philip Seymour Hoffman) to aid Afghan mujahedin against the Soviet Union. If the film didn't reach the heights of Nichols' earlier successes, it did earn generally favorable reviews and was a notably entry in the director's latter-career phase.

Follow @ogettell for movie news Mike Nichols - obituary - Telegraph Obituaries Mike Nichols - obituary Mike Nichols was a prolific director in film and theatre whose Oscar-winning movie The Graduate was a cinematic landmark of the 1960s Mike Nichols on the set of 'Catch-22' in 1970 Photo: REX 2:58PM GMT 20 Nov 2014 Comments Mike Nichols, who has died aged 83, was a Broadway and Hollywood director popularly supposed to possess the Midas touch thanks to an early stream of critical and commercial hits. He won nine Tony awards for his work in the legitimate theatre and an Oscar for his second film, The Graduate (1967), which introduced Dustin Hoffman to the screen and became a landmark of the new permissive cinema of the Sixties. In his younger days he was also a performer, scoring a notable success in association with Elaine May in a comic double-act called An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May, which ran for 10 months on Broadway in 1960-61.

Nichols won his most recent Tony award in 2012 for directing a Broadway revival of Death of a Salesman. In the theatre he was known as an innovator in terms of dramatic “business” and as an actor’s director. His skill with actors carried over into the cinema, where he coaxed Elizabeth Taylor and Sandy Dennis into Oscar-winning performances in his first film, an adaptation of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966). In the same film, Richard Burton was outstanding as the waspish academic whose deteriorating marriage forms the focus of the drama. Other players who did some of their best work under Nichols’s direction included Meryl Streep in Silkwood (1983), Heartburn (1986) and Postcards from the Edge (1990); Melanie Griffith and Sigourney Weaver in Working Girl (1988); Jack Nicholson in Carnal Knowledge (1971) and Heartburn (1986); and Julia Roberts in Closer (2004) and Charlie Wilson’s War (2007).

He directed John Travolta, as a Clintonlike president, in Primary Colors (1998), and in 2003 he turned the 1993 Broadway sensation Angels in America into a successful television miniseries. Nichols himself never made great claims for his work. While acknowledging Ingmar Bergman and Jean Renoir as artists of the cinema, he placed himself in an altogether lower category. “The rest of us”, he said, “make entertainment. And that’s an absolutely honourable profession.” He saw no consistency in his work between one production and another and discouraged attempts to find one. Related Articles Anne Bancroft 09 Jun 2005 In keeping with his reputation as a satirist, he was never averse to mocking his Hollywood masters. With the success of The Graduate he could have written his own meal-ticket in Tinseltown. What do you want to do next? the moguls asked; just tell us and we’ll sign the cheque. Nichols thought hard and long and finally pronounced. The Green Awning: he wanted to film The Green Awning. What’s it about? they asked. Well, it’s about a green awning, with nobody underneath.

Nothing happens, there’s no love interest, no jokes, just the play of light on this green awning. Sounds great, they said: who can we get to play the awning? Watch clips from some of Mike Nichols' best films Mike Nichols wasn’t always in such demand. Despite his prodigious early success , he went fallow for some eight years in the cinema. A couple of flops, The Day of the Dolphin (1973) and The Fortune (1975), wiped out his commercial credit in Hollywood and he was unable to make another film until Silkwood in 1983. From purely imaginary stories, he began to focus on scripts with some foundation in fact — Silkwood, about the mysterious death of an employee at a nuclear plant who learnt more than was good for her; Heartburn, dramatising scriptwriter Nora Ephron’s turbulent marriage to the Watergate journalist Carl Bernstein; Biloxi Blues (1988), the middle panel of playwright Neil Simon’s autobiographical trilogy; and Postcards from the Edge, which was not autobiographical but leaned heavily on the actress Carrie Fisher’s recollections of life with her mother, Debbie Reynolds.

Later work — Wolf (1994), The Birdcage (1996) and the science-fiction comedy flop What Planet Are You From? (2000) — was critically mauled, though The Birdcage (a remake of the French gay comedy La Cage aux Folles) was a commercial blockbuster and made Nichols bankable again after years in the cold. Clive Owen, Natalie Portman, Julie Roberts and Jude Law in a scene from 'Closer' (REUTERS) His forte was light entertainment. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and, to a lesser degree, Silkwood were his only films to strive for more than witty, glancing satire. In theatre, too, he was best known for his brilliant staging of Neil Simon comedies or for Monty Python’s Spamalot (2005), much less so for more serious work such as Ariel Dorfman’s Death and the Maiden (1992). Michael Igor Peschkowsky was born in Berlin on November 6 1931, the son of a Russian-Jewish doctor who had emigrated to Germany after the revolution.

His grandparents on his mother’s side were Hedwig Lachmann, who wrote the German libretto for Richard Strauss’s opera Salome, and Gustav Lachmann, leader of the German Social Democrat party, who was murdered by the Nazis. In 1938 Nichols’s father emigrated to the United States, obtained American medical qualifications and set up in practice as a GP in Manhattan under the name Paul Nichols, formed out of his Russian patronymic Nicholaievitch. His two sons followed him in 1939 and his wife two years later. They lived near Central Park, and the young Mike Nichols attended a series of upper-class schools — Cherry Lane School in Darien, Connecticut, Dalton School and Walden High in New York. He was stage-struck from a young age but his teachers advised against a theatrical career. From Walden High he graduated to New York University but dropped out and, after a period as a shipping clerk, enrolled in 1950 at the University of Chicago, where he studied Psychiatry. Mike Nichols (GETTY) His father having died, leaving the family hard-pressed, Mike worked his way through college in a number of part-time jobs.

He also took part in campus theatrical activities, making his debut as a director with a production of Yeats’s Purgatory. Abandoning his academic career in 1954, Nichols returned to New York and joined the Actors Studio, home of the Method. To pay for his tuition, he taught horseback riding, became a disc jockey and was a waiter at a Howard Johnson’s diner. He was fired from this last job, however, when a difficult customer asked him to recommend an ice cream to accompany his hot fudge sundae and Nichols suggested “chicken flavour”. In 1955 he signed on with the Compass Theatre in Chicago, an improvisational group including Alan Arkin, Shelley Berman, Zorah Lampert, Barbara Harris and Elaine May. They performed satirical sketches and cabaret routines which, after the collapse of Compass in 1957, formed the nucleus of the show that became known as An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May, which reached Broadway in 1960.

Mike Nichols (left) on the set of 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' with George Segal, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton (GETTY) Nichols and May became constant companions on and offstage, though the liaison broke up when their careers began to move in different directions. May wanted to write, and the relationship did not survive her unsuccessful 1961 play A Matter of Position, in which Nichols appeared. Where once they had been equals on stage, now May was the dominant partner, and Nichols resented her criticism . They did not act together again until 1980, in a revival of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and made one last appearance in 1992 in a benefit performance of their early cabaret work. After the break with Elaine May, Nichols concentrated on direction, initially in Vancouver, where he mounted a production of The Importance of Being Earnest, and then on Broadway, where he had his first hit with Neil Simon’s Barefoot in the Park (1963), for which he won his first Tony award.

A stream of successes followed — an off-Broadway production of Ann Jellicoe’s The Knack, Murray Schisgal’s Luv (both 1964) and another Neil Simon hit, The Odd Couple, in 1965. For the last two he also collected Tony awards. He was the hottest director on Broadway, on the strength of which Hollywood beckoned and he signed to make Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? for Warner Bros in 1966. He seemed to take instantly to the cinema, delivering a high-octane production that attracted a slew of Oscar nominations and five awards, including best actress and best supporting actress for Elizabeth Taylor and Sandy Dennis. Taking time out only to stage another Tony-winning Neil Simon comedy on Broadway, Plaza Suite, he plunged into a fully-fledged film career and picked up an Oscar for his own work on The Graduate (1967). This was one of the most influential films of its time. It launched Dustin Hoffman as a film star, cheerfully broke taboos on the depiction of screen sex and came equipped with a Simon and Garfunkel score that became an instant popular classic.

Grossing $50 million, The Graduate was a huge commercial hit, unerringly reflecting the contemporary views of young people worldwide. It was the high-water mark of Nichols’s career. Though he had subsequent successes, none matched The Graduate. His next film was an adaptation of Joseph Heller’s cult novel Catch-22 (1970). Critics found the all-star cast, including Jon Voight and Orson Welles, overpowering, inflating what was originally a sardonic novel into something close to slapstick. Audiences were baffled, too, by the title joke (faithfully transposed from Heller’s novel). Nichols had more success with Carnal Knowledge (1971), a title chosen to appeal to young people who had responded to The Graduate. Spanning 30 years, it charted the love lives of two college chums, Jack Nicholson and Art Garfunkel, with diametrically different views of women. Where Nicholson treats them as sex objects, Garfunkel idealises them; and neither, in the long run, is able to forge a lasting relationship.

Alternating with stage work, which included yet another Tony-winning Neil Simon comedy, The Prisoner of Second Avenue, in 1972 and a new production of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya in 1973, Nichols continued to make movies. But his next two were flops. The Day of the Dolphin (1973), with George C Scott as a dippy marine biologist who teaches dolphins to talk, was embarrassing, while The Fortune (1975), a would-be black comedy with Warren Beatty and Jack Nicholson trying to murder Stockard Channing for her money, was so badly received that it was only fitfully released in Britain. For the next eight years, Nichols devoted himself to theatre and television, not returning to the screen until 1983. Silkwood was a critical, though not a commercial, success, based on the true story of factory worker Karen Silkwood, who died after trying to blow the whistle on a nuclear scandal. It was distinguished by Meryl Streep’s performance in the title role, confirming that Nichols had not lost his touch with actors.

His more successful films of the 1980s included Heartburn (1986) and Working Girl (1988). Though not cutting very deep, the latter was an amusing corporate satire, in which a secretary (Melanie Griffith) has ideas for improving efficiency only to see them passed off as her own by her unscrupulous boss (Sigourney Weaver). But the boot is on the other foot when Weaver is laid up with a broken leg thanks to a skiing accident. The film was popular, thanks largely to Griffith’s on-screen romance with Harrison Ford; it secured several Oscar nominations, but an award only for the theme song. Mike Nichols with his wife, Diane Sawyer, at the 2012 Tony Awards (EPA) Nichols continued to flourish on the New York stage, with productions of the musical My One and Only (1983); Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing (1984); Social Security (1986), a comedy about old age; and a 1988 revival of Waiting for Godot with Robin Williams, Steve Martin and F Murray Abraham. His film work, however, showed signs of drift.

The Hollywood satire Postcards from the Edge was notable chiefly for the performances of Shirley MacLaine and Meryl Streep as a feuding mother and daughter. But Regarding Henry (1991) was another embarrassment — the story of a hotshot lawyer (Harrison Ford) who learns to question his values after a head injury. It formed a companion piece to Wolf (1994), with Jack Nicholson as a publisher who is bitten by a wolf and turns into a boardroom predator. As a variation on the wolfman theme, the film had a certain novelty value. Two years later, Nichols resurrected his long-neglected acting career with a role in Wallace Shawn’s play The Designated Mourner at London’s Cottesloe Theatre. Charles Spencer in The Daily Telegraph described Nichols’s first stage performance in 15 years as “mesmerising” but found the play pretentious . Despite its auspicious beginning, Nichols’s screen career will perhaps be valued less highly than his work for the theatre. His films never formed a coherent body of work and were mostly divertissements, but the best of them — The Graduate, Working Girl, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? — were very diverting indeed.

His last film was Charlie Wilson’s War, a rollicking yarn based on a true story, with a script by Aaron Sorkin, about a US congressman secretly funding Afghan rebels against the Soviets. Tom Hanks played the congressman, Wilson, and Julia Roberts co-starred. The film was well-received by most critics. At the time of his death Nichols had been working on an adaptation for HBO of the play Master Class about Maria Callas, starring Meryl Streep. Mike Nichols married, first, the singer Patricia Scott. He married, secondly, Margo Callas and, thirdly, the novelist Annabel Davis Golf. All three marriages, resulting in two daughters and a son, were dissolved. In 1988 he married the broadcast journalist Diane Sawyer, who survives him. Mike Nichols, born November 6 1931, died November 19 2014 Working Girl (1988) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends.

Error When a secretary's idea is stolen by her boss, she seizes an opportunity to steal it back by pretending she has her boss' job. Director: From $2.99 (SD) on Amazon Video ON DISC a list of 24 titles created 26 Mar 2013 a list of 46 titles created 02 May 2013 a list of 30 titles created 31 Mar 2014 a list of 44 titles created 22 Nov 2014 a list of 41 titles created 9 months ago Search for " Working Girl " on Amazon.com Connect with IMDb Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Won 1 Oscar. Another 8 wins & 16 nominations. See more awards » Videos Henry is a lawyer who survives a shooting only to find he cannot remember anything. If that weren't enough, Henry also has to recover his speech and mobility, in a life he no longer fits ...

See full summary » Director: Mike Nichols A young Amish boy is sole witness to a murder; policeman John Book goes into hiding in Amish country to protect him until the trial. Director: Peter Weir The story of Dian Fossey, a scientist who came to Africa to study the vanishing mountain gorillas, and later fought to protect them. Director: Michael Apted An ugly duckling having undergone a remarkable change, still harbors feelings for her crush: a carefree playboy, but not before his business-focused brother has something to say about it. Director: Sydney Pollack Carolyn Polhemus, an up-and-comer in the Kindle County D.A.'s Office, is found viciously murdered in her home. Immediately her boss, D.A. Raymond Horgan and his chief deputy, Rusty Sabich ... See full summary » Director: Alan J. Pakula Edit Storyline Tess McGill is a frustrated secretary, struggling to forge ahead in the world of big business in New York. She gets her chance when her boss breaks her leg on a skiing holiday. McGill takes advantage of her absence to push ahead with her career. She teams up with investment broker Jack Trainer to work on a big deal.

The situation is complicated after the return of her boss. Written by Sami Al-Taher <staher2000@yahoo.com> See All (87) » Taglines: For anyone who's ever won. For anyone who's ever lost. And for everyone who's still in there trying. Genres: 21 December 1988 (USA) See more » Also Known As: Did You Know? Trivia An original trailer showed a scene not in the finished movie, where Katharine asks Tess to spray her red dress with anti-static, before Katharine's welcome party. See more » Goofs When Katherine orders Tess to get her prescription, she goes outside and crosses the street right in front of Jack's oncoming cab; there is no way he would have not seen her. See more » Quotes Tess McGill : Oh god - and last night! Cyn : Yeah, I shouldda checked the milligrams. Live and learn. Career Women with Big Ideas and Even Bigger Hair 27 July 2008 | by evanston_dad (United States) – See all my reviews A pure fantasy served up by Mike Nichols, but a vastly entertaining one.

Melanie Griffith is the secretary with massive hair who pretends to be a corporate business woman when her boss is layed up with a broken leg. The catch is, she finds out she's pretty good at it, and things get complicated when she ends up spearheading a business deal and falling in love with her key partner (Harrison Ford), all the while trying to keep what she's doing from her boss (Sigourney Weaver). It's the kind of movie that could just as easily have been made as a screwball comedy in the 1940s, perhaps with Barbara Stanwyck in the lead role. The film is a classic in its own small way, one of the best comedies to emerge from the 1980s. Griffith is matched well with her role, so her limitations as an actress don't draw too much attention to themselves. But it's Weaver who steals the show as Griffith's imperious boss. She's a riot as a confident and powerful career woman from hell. And Joan Cusack steals a few scenes of her own as Griffith's best friend and fellow secretary, who sports hair as big as Griffith's and a Joisy accent to boot.

Nichols knows how to direct a comedy so that the funny bits speak for themselves. Grade: A 15 of 17 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes Working Girl (1988) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error When a secretary's idea is stolen by her boss, she seizes an opportunity to steal it back by pretending she has her boss' job. Director: From EUR2.99 (SD) on Amazon Video ON DISC Famous Directors: From Sundance to Prominence From Christopher Nolan to Quentin Tarantino and every Coen brother in between, many of today's most popular directors got their start at the Sundance Film Festival . Here's a list of some of the biggest names to go from Sundance to Hollywood prominence.

a list of 24 titles created 26 Mar 2013 a list of 46 titles created 02 May 2013 a list of 30 titles created 31 Mar 2014 a list of 44 titles created 22 Nov 2014 a list of 41 titles created 9 months ago Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Won 1 Oscar. Another 8 wins & 16 nominations. See more awards » Videos Henry is a lawyer who survives a shooting only to find he cannot remember anything. If that weren't enough, Henry also has to recover his speech and mobility, in a life he no longer fits ... See full summary » Director: Mike Nichols A young Amish boy is sole witness to a murder; policeman John Book goes into hiding in Amish country to protect him until the trial. Director: Peter Weir The story of Dian Fossey, a scientist who came to Africa to study the vanishing mountain gorillas, and later fought to protect them.

Director: Michael Apted An ugly duckling having undergone a remarkable change, still harbors feelings for her crush: a carefree playboy, but not before his business-focused brother has something to say about it. Director: Sydney Pollack Carolyn Polhemus, an up-and-comer in the Kindle County D.A.'s Office, is found viciously murdered in her home. Immediately her boss, D.A. Raymond Horgan and his chief deputy, Rusty Sabich ... See full summary » Director: Alan J. Pakula Edit Storyline Tess McGill is a frustrated secretary, struggling to forge ahead in the world of big business in New York. She gets her chance when her boss breaks her leg on a skiing holiday. McGill takes advantage of her absence to push ahead with her career. She teams up with investment broker Jack Trainer to work on a big deal. The situation is complicated after the return of her boss. Written by Sami Al-Taher <staher2000@yahoo.com> See All (87) » Taglines: For anyone who's ever won. For anyone who's ever lost. And for everyone who's still in there trying.

Genres: 21 December 1988 (USA) See more » Also Known As: Die Waffen der Frauen See more » Filming Locations: Did You Know? Trivia Melanie Griffith and James Lally also appeared in The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990). See more » Goofs Cyn's eyeshadow when she's visiting Tess at the office and pretending to be her secretary: the middle stripe of gold-ish color changes size. See more » Quotes Tess McGill : Bob, you're not seriously looking for a new assistant, are you? Bob Speck : Well, not exactly at this moment, but I'm always on the lookout for new blood. Tess McGill : I'm hungry, Bob, but I am not that hungry! – See all my reviews With a cast that includes Melanie Griffith, Harrison Ford, Sigourney Weaver, Alec Baldwin, Oliver Platt and Kevin Spacey, its a minor miracle Joan Cusack got any attention at all. But she did get attention, and a well-deserved Oscar nomination. She is completely hysterical and is one of the best reasons to see this fairy tale set against the big bad world of Wall Street.

Her best scene is when she masquerades as Melanie's secretary and makes an offer to Harrison "Coffee, Tea, Me"? 22 of 29 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes Mike Nichols: Obituary of a Hollywood great - BBC News BBC News Mike Nichols: Obituary of a Hollywood great 20 November 2014 Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Mike Nichols's work will be remembered for its brilliant dialogue and deadpan humour Mike Nichols was one of the most highly rated US film and stage directors, with a list of awards to prove it. Over the course of his career he won a Grammy, an Oscar, four Emmys and eight Tonys, working with Hollywood's most famous actors. His most famous film was The Graduate (1967), which launched the career of Dustin Hoffman and was one the highest grossing films of the 1960s. The most memorable scene from the movie, showing Hoffman's Benjamin Braddock confronting the older Mrs Robinson (Anne Bancroft) as she peels a stocking from her leg, went on to become one of the most enduring frames in cinema.

It was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including best picture, best actor, best actress, best supporting actress and the adapted screenplay category. Nichols won the Oscar for best director. His other landmark movies included Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? which pitted married stars Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton against one another as a warring couple, earning Nichols his first Academy Award nomination. He went on to make films as diverse as Catch 22, Silkwood, Working Girl, Postcards from the Edge and Closer. Popular, often critically acclaimed films - he brought his comic flair and wry sensibility to each era, though he never won another Oscar. Arabian horses Mr Nichol's private life was no less colourful than his career as director. He had countless girlfriends, numerous wives and a valuable collection of paintings and cars. He was also a renowned breeder of Polish Arabian horses. The son of a Russian doctor who escaped to Germany after the Russian revolution, Nichols was born Michael Igor Peschkowsky in 1931.

Image copyright Rex Features Image caption Mike Nichols at work on the set of Catch-22 in 1970 Nichols lost all his hair at the age of four after reacting badly to a whooping cough vaccine, leaving him to rely on wigs and false eyebrows throughout his entire life. His family moved to the US to escape the Nazis in 1939, and the seven-year-old arrived in New York armed with only two phrases: "I do not speak English" and "Please do not kiss me." "Nothing about coming here felt traumatic," he told the Hollywood Reporter in 2012. "It just felt like an adventure. But Buck Henry [who wrote the screenplay for The Graduate] was in my school, and the way he described it, I was an outsider in every possible way. The death of his father, when he was aged only 12, left the family poverty-stricken and prompted the future director to find solace in books, films and theatre. And it was a chance ticket to see Elia Kazan's production of A Streetcar Named Desire that proved seminal. "To this day, I remember it was the most poetic thing I ever saw. It was magnificent and very upsetting and exciting.

It was so true, real and shocking." He met Elaine May while studying at the University of Chicago - and though both professed to loathe the other on sight, they eventually struck up a lifelong friendship. By 1958, the pair were making a name for themselves as a comedy duo, performing on Broadway and appearing on television. But their relationship was notoriously fiery. A year on, the pair broke up over artistic differences. May quit the partnership and Nichols was left bereft, describing himself as "the leftover half of something". There's nothing better than discovering, to your own astonishment, what you're meant to do. It's like falling in love In 1960, he was hired to direct Barefoot in the Park, by newcomer Neil Simon. The romantic comedy, starring Robert Redford as one half of a newlywed couple, was a critical triumph, winning him his first Tony. Nichols rapidly began to make a name for himself on Broadway - at one stage having four plays running concurrently. By the early 1970s, he was at the height of his fame, directing a big-budget adaptation of Catch-22 and the film Carnal Knowledge, starring Jack Nicholson.

Throughout this time he continued to direct a string of Broadway hits. Nichols said of stage work: "I think a director can make a play happen before your eyes so that you are part of it and it is part of you. "If you can get it right, there's no mystery. It's not about mystery. It's not even mysterious. It's about our lives.'' A lull in his film career was brought to an end with the 1983 film Silkwood - starring Meryl Streep - and in 1988 he directed Working Girl, starring Melanie Griffith. It was during this period that Nichols suffered a breakdown after becoming addicted to prescription sedatives, which deluded him to the point that he believed that he had lost all his money. In the 1990s came Postcards from the Edge, Primary Colors and The Birdcage.

Image copyright AP Image caption Mike Nichols was married four times - his last wife was Diane Sawyer (right) with whom he attended the funeral of actor Philip Seymour Hoffman earlier this year Nichols continued to work on highly acclaimed Hollywood productions, moving into television with the seminal mini-series Angels in America (2003), which looked into the lives of people coping with HIV in compassionless 1980s America. The New York Times in 2012 said that his "boyish humour and deadpan wit" characterised his skills as a director. "If his movies have a common denominator," the newspaper said, "it's probably their intelligence and, though Mr Nichols doesn't think of himself as a writer, their writerly attention to detail. "They're almost invariably based on good scripts, from which he extracts extra layers of nuance." His films were usually "smart movies about smart people" interspersed with an element of his famed sense of humour. Nichols, for his part, said that he was made to bring stories to the stage and screen. "There's nothing better than discovering, to your own astonishment, what you're meant to do. It's like falling in love," he once professed.

After three failed marriages, he met Diane Sawyer at an airport and they were compelled to declare their mutual admiration for one another. Nichols said his "ultimate happiness" began with her, calling her "the perfect wife". Mike Nichols: 'He took us out of our comfort zone' - Telegraph Film news Mike Nichols: 'He took us out of our comfort zone' Graduate director Mike Nichols, who has died aged 83, could make two people talking more dangerous and thrilling than any action scene, says Robbie Collin Mike Nichols on the set of 'Catch-22' in 1970 Photo: REX Follow When Mike Nichols died on Wednesday this week, the 83-year-old director still had two projects in development. One was Master Class, an adaptation of the Terrence McNally play, for HBO; the other was an adaptation of a Jonathan Tropper novel titled One Last Thing Before I Go. He leaves the pair of titles film -less, bereaved and hanging in the ether – but you could hardly ask for two better phrases from which to triangulate the meaning of Nichols’ terrifically accomplished but trickily un-pin-downable career.

One Last Thing Before I Go: well, that’s a line you could give to almost any Nichols character, from Anne Bancroft’s Mrs. Robinson languorously peeling off a stocking in The Graduate (1967) to Jude Law’s thwarted novelist and Julia Roberts’s aloof photographer trading acid-tipped barbs in Closer (2004). Nichols was a great filmer of talk, which partly came down to his excellent taste in writers (Nora Ephron, Patrick Marber, Aaron Sorkin), but also his theatre-honed knack for knowing how far words could take you. Charlie Wilson’s War (2007), his final film, is also one of his most densely scripted, yet one of the greatest moments in it is silent. After Philip Seymour Hoffman’s CIA agent erupts at a superior in Langley, smashing a glass panel in his office in the process, he stops at a secretary’s desk and mutters, “How did I do?” Words aren’t required: she gives him a subtle thumbs-up. It’s almost nothing, and it brings the house down.

Related Articles Watch: Director Mike Nichols' best known films 20 Nov 2014 Watching the dialogue in a Nichols film – and you don’t just listen to it, you watch it – can feel like being trapped in the middle of a paintball shoot-out, with each side trying to fire off the last, most merciless shot. It’s somehow safe and dangerous at the same time – a game to which we know the rules but that can leave us stinging for days. Closer is technically a romantic comedy, but it gives us precious little to laugh about, while The Graduate, released in the same year as Arthur Penn’s Bonnie and Clyde, is a youth rebellion movie turned on its head. Nichols specialised in making comfort zones as uncomfortable as possible, and vice versa. Mike Nichols (far left) directing Richard Burton and Elizabeth Talyor in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolfe? (REX) Working Girl (1988) is a female empowerment fable about a secretary, played by Melanie Griffith, scrambling to the top in present-day New York. It was topical and thorny, and more than a little indebted to Billy Wilder, but sweetened with Cinderella overtones and a theme by Carly Simon.

Nichols’ films were always smart, and they often smarted, but at the same time they seemed so easy, almost as if they had directed themselves. Master Class just about sums it up. Nichols was born Mikhail Igor Peschkowsky in 1931 in Berlin to Russian Jewish parents. His father fled to the United States during the pogroms of 1938, and a few months later, he and his three-year-old brother were sent to live with him. He studied medicine at the University of Chicago, but fell in love with acting, forming a comedy troupe with, among others, Elaine May, with whom he went on to strike up a successful double-act. Success in film came quickly: he was Oscar-nominated as a director for his debut feature, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), and won the same award the following year, for The Graduate. Carnal Knowledge (1971) helped do for Jack Nicholson what The Graduate did for Bancroft, but more often, the showpiece roles in a Nichols film tended to be female.

Meryl Streep has rarely been better than as the nuclear-power whistleblower in Silkwood (1983), and the same goes for Emma Thompson and the superb HBO drama Wit (2001), which she adapted with Nichols from a play by Margaret Edson. To see Julia Roberts at the height of her powers in recent years, watch Charlie Wilson’s War – and before that, Closer. What unites these films is nothing more complex, or rarer, than a sharp and subtle intelligence, a flair for shooting dialogue, and a way of bringing out the best in actors who work best under a sure but gentle touch. Often when you watch a Nichols film, you can barely see Nichols there at all. That's a rare talent indeed. Start your free 30 day Amazon Prime trial» Screen Junkies 10 Best 80's Romance Movies something here The 10 best 80's romance movies include romantic comedies as well as dramas. All were great date movies and still hold up as excellent choices when date night means a film at home.

These best 80s romance movies also cover the decade from "Reds" in 1981 to the very different "Say Anything" in 1989. Filmmakers proved you could find great romantic romantic stories just about anywhere. "The Princess Bride." Based on the fantastic novel by William Godman, this 1987 hit was perhaps the best 80's romance movie, because it appealed to guys and girls alike and said more about "true love" than just about any other film ever made. "An Officer and a Gentleman." In 1982, there was no more popular romantic leading man than Richard Gere, who had just starred in "American Gigolo." In "Officer," he plays a Navy flight school officer-in-training hoping to turn his life around when he meets a cute local factory worker (Debra Winger). When he sweeps her off her feet, literally, at the end of the movie, women cheered and guys knew the bar had just been raised for grand romantic gestures.

"Witness." While this 1985 movie was more of crime thriller than a romantic drama , the relationship between the tough big city detective (Harrison Ford) and the quiet, yet passionate Amish woman (Kelly McGillis) showed that Ford was more than just spaceships and bullwhips. "Working Girl." Ford returned to the role of romantic leading man in the 1988 Mike Nicholls-directed comedy that co-starred Melanie Griffith and Sigourney Weaver. While the hairstyles and clothes scream 1980s, the movie itself and the performances of all the leads hold up really well. "Reds." Warren Beatty's 1981 masterpiece about the life of John Reed, the American writer who covered the Russian revolution, and his passionate, but doomed relationship with Louise Bryant (Diane Keaton). Beatty's direction and his performance as Reed were among the highlights of 80's cinema.

"Roxanne." Steve Martin wrote and starred in this terrific 1987 update of the "Cyrano de Bergerac" story, this time making the large-nosed Renaissance man a small-town fire chief who falls for an astronomer (Darryl Hannah), but can't bring himself to tell her how he really feels. "Bull Durham." Baseball, sex, wisdom and some great movie lines . What more could you want from one of the best 80s romance movies that was loved by men and women alike. Kevin Costner was just becoming a star in this 1988 comedy and co-star Susan Sarandon was never sexier. With the chemistry they had in this movie, it's a little surprising they didn't make more films together. "When Harry Met Sally." Probably the funniest of the great 80's romance movies, this 1989 comedy starred Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan in the first of the many romantic comedy roles that would define much of her career. "Moonstruck." Seemingly out of nowhere, this 1987 romantic comedy starring the unlikely pairing of Cher and Nicholas Cage , became a huge hit.

Cher won the Oscar for Best Actress, Olympia Dukakis won for Best Supporting Actress and writer John Patrick Shanley won for his brilliant original screenplay. "Say Anything." Any guy or girl who grew up in the late 80's has a soft spot for this 1989 comedy-drama that captures all the desperation, confusion, fun and awkwardness of teen romance . It was Cameron Crowe's directorial debut (based on his original script) and it was clear then that the man who would go on to direct "Singles," "Jerry Maguire" and "Almost Famous" really had his pulse on the way people act and talk when they're in love. Mike Nichols - IMDb IMDb Director | Producer | Miscellaneous Crew He, along with the other members of the "Compass Players" including Elaine May , Paul Sills , Byrne Piven , Joyce Hiller Piven and Edward Asner helped start the famed "Second City Improv" company. They used the games taught to them by fellow cast mate, Paul Sills 's mother, Viola Spolin . He later worked in legitimate theater as an actor before ...

See full bio » Born: a list of 25 people created 10 Jan 2011 a list of 28 people created 30 Mar 2011 a list of 34 people created 29 Jul 2013 a list of 49 people created 21 Sep 2015 a list of 24 people created 9 months ago Do you have a demo reel? Add it to your IMDbPage How much of Mike Nichols's work have you seen? User Polls Won 1 Oscar. Another 28 wins & 28 nominations.

See more awards » Known For 1977 The 'Annie' Christmas Show (TV Movie) (executive producer) 1976 Family (TV Series) (executive producer) 1985 Whoopi Goldberg: Direct from Broadway (TV Special documentary) (original stage director) / (original stage producer) 1982 Annie (originally presented on the New York Stage by) 1981 The Gin Game (TV Movie) (director: stage production) 1971 Plaza Suite (adapted from the Broadway play directed by) Hide 1962 Julie and Carol at Carnegie Hall (TV Special documentary) (writer) Hide - Carol Burnett: A Woman of Character (2007) ... (lyrics: "You're So London" - uncredited) 1962 Julie and Carol at Carnegie Hall (TV Special documentary) (writer: "No Mozart Tonight", "You're So London", "From Switzerland: The Pratt Family) Hide The Private Eye (the producers wish to thank) ( announced ) 2015 Mad Men (TV Series) (in memory of - 1 episode) - Severance (2015) ...

(in memory of) - Rare Exports (2014) ... (in memory of) 2014 Saturday Night Live (TV Series) (in memory of - 1 episode) 2014 Two Night Stand (the producers wish to thank) 2011 Rampart (special thanks) 2008/I The Graduates (grateful acknowledgment) 2002 Solaris (special thanks) 1999 The Wonderful World of Disney (TV Series) (acknowledgment - 1 episode) - Annie (1999) ...

(acknowledgment: originally presented on the New York stage by) 1996 The Pallbearer (special thanks) Hide 2014 Fatherhood (TV Series documentary short) Himself 1995-2012 American Masters (TV Series documentary) Himself 2012 The 66th Annual Tony Awards (TV Movie documentary) Himself - Winner: Best Direction of a Play 1998-2011 Charlie Rose (TV Series) Himself - Guest / Himself 2007 HBO First Look (TV Series documentary) Himself 2006 The South Bank Show (TV Series documentary) Himself 2006 Legends Ball (TV Movie documentary) Himself 1992 In the Life (TV Series documentary) Himself 1988 Great Performances (TV Series) Himself Himself - Nominee: Best Director & Accepting Best Supporting Actress Award for Sandy Dennis 1966 Today (TV Series) 1960 Person to Person (TV Series documentary) Himself 1960 What's My Line?

(TV Series) Himself - Mystery Guest 1960 Jack Paar Presents (TV Movie) Himself 1959 The Big Party (TV Series) Himself 1959 Laugh Line (TV Series) Himself 1959 Accent on Love (TV Movie) Himself - Comedian - Episode #3.15 (1957) ... Himself - Comedian Hide 2014 Entertainment Tonight (TV Series) Himself 2014 CNN Newsroom (TV Series) Himself 2014 Inside Edition (TV Series documentary) Himself 1997 The Fifties (TV Mini-Series documentary) Himself (in Nichols & May sketch) (uncredited) 1996-1997 American Masters (TV Series documentary) Himself 1996 Classic Stand-Up Comedy of Television (TV Special documentary) Himself 1984 The Great Standups (TV Movie documentary) Himself Personal Details Other Works: "An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May," was performed at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, New Jersey.

See more » Publicity Listings: 6 Interviews | 11 Articles | 2 Magazine Cover Photos | See more » Height: Did You Know? Personal Quote: [Part of 2005 Tony Award acceptance speech] "God, my head is totally empty. I had a thing I was going to say, and I have forgot it, because I had given up so long ago. But the first thing to say is thank you. To the other members of my category, my friends Jack and James and Bartlett, I guess you are thinking age before beauty, me too! My congratulations to the winners. My love to those who have ... See more » Trivia: Lost much of his body hair in his early teen years due to a bad batch of whooping cough vaccine. See more » Trademark: Often includes extremely long starting and/or ending shots taken from high in the air, for example Working Girl (1988) and Angels in America (2003). Star Sign:

Question: For which 1988 Mike Nicholls directed film was Melanie Griffith nominated for a Best Actress Oscar?
Answer: WORKING GIRL